Broncos, Russell Wilson reach agreement on five-year extension worth up to $245 million

DENVER – Broncos general manager George Paton fell asleep Wednesday night with a question still in his mind and woke up a short time later to a FaceTime call and an answer.

His quarterback, Russell Wilson, was on the other end of the line around 11:45 p.m. with the news he hoped to hear when he drifted off.

“George, we’ve got a deal,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s agent Mark Rodgers and Denver’s vice president of football operations Rich Hurtado – “two tough negotiators,” Paton called them – had cemented the quarterback’s long-term future in Denver with a massive five-year contract extension announced Thursday afternoon and worth up to $245 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal structure. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal.

The agreement tacks onto the final two seasons of Wilson’s current deal, meaning he will go forward on essentially a seven-year deal worth up to $296 million.

“I came in here knowing that after the trade that I had two years and I’m ready to play and do what I’ve got to do, but to get this done before the season and have it all done is a blessing,” said Wilson, who reiterated his desire to finish his career in Denver. “It allows us all to be excited. Just to be in the locker room with the guys, to be on the field and just have a great time with guys. … It’s been an amazing journey.”

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The contract comes with $165 million in guaranteed money and the five new years of the deal average $49 million per season. Those numbers each rank second in NFL history behind Deshaun Watson’s fully guaranteed deal and Aaron Rodgers’ $50.3 million per season, respectively. Wilson is set to land a $50 million signing bonus and will bank $77 million over the next eight months in the form of that, his base salary for this year and a $23 million guaranteed option bonus to be paid March 1.

The only question for Wilson and the Broncos was whether a deal would get done before the regular season started or if it would have to wait until the spring. Paton confirmed Thursday that the parties were pushed up against the deadline with preparations for Denver’s season opener set to commence.

“I felt that we’d figure it out, but you never know,” Paton said. “We’ve never done a deal together and Mark’s tough and Rich’s tough, so you’re like, ‘How is this going to work?’ (Wilson) and I kept talking, but we’re not – we could have done a deal together, but we had two tough negotiators.”

Paton and his staff had been up most of the night Tuesday night scouring the transaction wire after cutting the roster to 53 players, leading to the nap that preceded the celebratory call from Wilson.

“I couldn’t figure out the phone, so I lost them and I was like, ‘Are they going to ask for more money? What are they doing?’” Paton said. “They called again, I answered and it was one of the best phone calls I’ve ever received.”

It was a long time coming, though the heavy lifting on the deal came together in the past three weeks.

Paton and Rogers had talked in concept about a long-term commitment as far back as the spring league meetings in Florida in late March. However, a transaction of this magnitude couldn’t realistically be finalized until the Walton-Penner Family ownership group was in place. Guaranteed money in contracts must be put into escrow at the time of signing, per NFL rules, so a cash outlay like a multiyear extension for a franchise quarterback had to wait until Walmart heir Rob Walton and his group closed on the deal to buy the franchise for $4.65 billion on Aug. 9

Once that happened, new CEO and owner Greg Penner quickly joined the conversations and a deal moved toward the finish line.

“I’ve worked with Greg extensively on this over the past three weeks and Greg rolled up his sleeves and he was a big help,” Paton said. “His support, his communication, his responsiveness and, of course, the resources were instrumental in getting this done.”

Under a four-year, $140 million deal originally signed with Seattle, Wilson carried a reasonable $24 million cap charge in 2022 and $27 million in 2023. When he signed that deal in 2019, it was a record-setter on several fronts, including total guaranteed money ($107 million) and average annual salary ($35 million), according to overthecap.com data.

Since then, of course, the price of top-end quarterback play has only increased. Rodgers signed a three-year, $151 million extension this spring, the Cleveland Browns signed Watson to a fully guaranteed five-year extension worth $230 million, and the Arizona Cardinals gave Kyler Murray $160 million guaranteed and up to $230 million overall on a five-year extension.

Wilson slots in ahead of Murray and Las Vegas’ Derek Carr in terms of annual value and guaranteed money on the five new years of his agreement.

However, the Broncos quarterback did not land a fully guaranteed deal like Watson did with the Browns. That outcome could have an impact on future quarterback deals, most notably Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, who is representing himself and trying to get an extension from the Ravens before the season begins.

Wilson said Thursday that after 10 years in the NFL, his attention did not center necessarily on re-writing the contract record book.

“The next decade I’m really excited about,” Wilson said. “To me what it’s really about is the ability to win championships and having the space in the salary cap so George can make his magic and we can get guys like Randy Gregory when he comes on the team or other great players. We want to make this a destination location. ….

“For me, it wasn’t really about how much, necessarily, as it’s about how many? How many Super Bowls are we winning? That’s really the focus.”

Added Paton: “I believe this deal is a win-win for all of us and it allows us to continue building a championship roster.”

Denver hasn’t been to the postseason since Peyton Manning led the franchise to a Super Bowl title during the 2015 season. Since then, six consecutive postseason misses.

In the locker room before practice on Thursday morning, veteran running back Melvin Gordon, a friend of Wilson’s dating to the 2011 season when both were at the University of Wisconsin, spoke the simple truth that drove frustration in this franchise the past six years and sparked another round of celebrating on Thursday.

“Not having a quarterback in this league sucks,” he told reporters. “We don’t have that problem.”

They won’t for quite a while.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russell Wilson contract extension with Broncos worth up to $245 milion